I received the weirdest email a couple of weeks ago - May 14 if we're going to be anal and exact - from Schmap. Never heard of them before the email so I had to visit their website to find out that with Schmap you can 'Explore your destination online with our unique integration of maps, photos and place reviews.' The email was notification that a photo I had taken in New Orleans and placed in my Flickr account had been short-listed for inclusion in the seventh edition of their Schmap New Orleans Guide, to be published early June 2009.
It's the worst shot ever and was taken more as an aide memoire of the place's history than a holiday snap. I can prove it's a terrible photo as I've attached it to this paragraph. When I got the email notification of the shortlist I had to laugh because it reminded me of the psychic I met. My first full day in New Orleans I visited Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo on Bourbon Street 'cause hey, it's New Orleans and it's named for Marie Laveau AND it's on Bourbon Street. It's a tourist trifecta, I mean, come on! I poked around in the shop for a bit looking at (but not touching) various gris-gris and other voodoo paraphernalia. As I was leaving the proprietress invited me to come back at 12pm if I wanted a palm/psychic reading. It seemed fun so I said sure. Roamed around Bourbon Street checking out bars and trinket shops and headed on back to the shop, where I spent a very entertaining 30-45 mins. He was such a hoot!
He said a lot (let's not get into the marriage thing because YUCK is all I can say to that) but what I remembered was he asked me if I'd been published. I said yes, years ago (when I was a angry, radical pro-Maori tertiary student) I had a research paper published. He frowned and said, 'No you WILL be published.' Of course I looked oblivious because I don't intend to write anything more strenuous than a blog post these days. Then he said it was still to come, that it would be photos and asked me how the holiday pictures were going. I'm not a camera-toting person and I remember thinking he must have that bit wrong, so just shrugged. He laughed and told me to keep up the holiday snaps. Didn't remember anything about what he said - until I received the email.
Didn't really think anything about it after that because I mean, shoot, I figured they just headed to Flickr and did a keyword search for anything New Orleans tourist-y related and emailed all of those people, right? That AND it's a truly ugly photo. No people are in it otherwise I would've managed to chop their heads off, I'm sure, but I did get two ugly cars LOL Ack. All of my photos were to remind me that yes, I really was in New Orleans or Memphis. I mean, shit, I took a photo of the Piggly Wiggly sign up the road from my motel because I'd heard about it in movies but never seen one LOL D'OH. Anyway, got an email yesterday to find that it HAS been included in their New Orleans map. So hah! You can check it out on their site, and I've placed the widget at the top left for a bit. It's a pic of the Ursuline Convent - historic place, spooky history but it's New Orleans so it's spooky-cool all over.
It's artistic license but I've taken what Monsieur Le Psychic said to mean the holiday photo inclusion in an online map guide is what he meant by 'published'. He was spot on with a couple of other things as well. Even still I'm bound and determined the marriage thing is NOT going to come true. So there :D
